An attorney for former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich says the former governor is an honest man who "didn't take a dime."

Rex Arbogast / The Associated PressFormer Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, center, arrives at the Federal Court building with his wife Patti, right, for his federal corruption trial Tuesday in Chicago.

Fiery defense attorney Sam Adam Jr. said Tuesday that by the end of the case, jurors will know that in their gut. In presenting the opening statement to jurors, he said Blagojevich will take the stand on his own behalf.

Earlier, a federal prosecutor said Blagojevich sought to use his power as governor to get benefits for himself and his inner circle.

Blagojevich has pleaded innocent to trying to sell or trade President Barack Obama's former Senate seat. He also denies that he plotted to turn his power as governor into a moneymaking scheme for himself and insiders.

Federal prosecutors have 500 hours of secretly made FBI wiretap
tapes in which they say Blagojevich is plainly heard saying that he
wants something in return for the Senate seat. "I want to make money,"
he says in a telephone discussion of the seat with a lobbyist friend,
according to an FBI affidavit. And prosecutors say he refers to it as
"golden" thing that he won't give up for nothing.

Prosecutors have also lined up numerous key witnesses, including
political insiders such as Blagojevich's former chiefs of staff John
Harris and Alonzo "Lon" Monk.

Blagojevich's attorneys have said that the recordings, if played in
their entirety, would show he did not try to sell the Senate seat.

The former governor and his brother, Robert, a Nashville, Tenn.,
businessman, have pleaded not guilty to charges that they conspired not
only to sell or trade the Senate seat but also turn the governor's
office into a powerful machine to pressure people for campaign money
and payoffs.

They deny charges they used the governor's power over the state
pursestrings in an effort to squeeze hefty campaign donations out of a
racetrack owner, a highway contractor, a children's hospital executive
and even top presidential aide Rahm Emanuel, then an Illinois
congressman.

Rod Blagojevich faces 24 counts including racketeering, wire fraud,
attempted extortion and bribery. If convicted, he faces a maximum of
415 years in prison and fines totaling $6 million.